James “Whitey” Bulger, once the daring overlord of Boston’s Irish mob, seemed content to sit placidly in court this month as witness after witness pointed a damning finger at him.

Say he’s a gangster, killer and thief and Mr. Bulger did nothing.

Say he’s a rat, and he did this: “You suck,” he screamed at a former gangland colleague who called him a snitch from the witness stand, “f——you.”

He wants to get into the gangster hall of fame, and you can’t get in by killing women or being a rat

The encounter is deeply emblematic, not only of Mr. Bulger’s trial for 19 murders, including two women, but also of the entire underworld. It highlights the intense culture clash, where men of unfathomably depraved morals desperately cling to the notion of honour among thieves.

But it is a notion rapidly disappearing.

AP Photo/Jane Flavell CollinsThis courtroom sketch depicts Steve Davis, right, brother of homicide victim Debra Davis, allegedly killed by James "Whitey" Bulger, centre, as Davis explodes in anger after Bulger's former partner Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi, behind right, identified him as a drug user and informant at U.S. District Court, in Boston, Monday, July 22, 2013.

“Bulger is intent on showing two things — that he’s not an informant and that he didn’t kill the two women. He wants to get into the gangster hall of fame, and you can’t get in by killing women or being a rat,” said Matt Connolly, a former U.S. prosecutor who worked on cases against Boston’s mob and is attending the Bulger trial in preparation for a book.

Steve McKinleyEx-FBI agent Joe Pistone, who infiltrated the Mafia in the '70s using the alias Donnie Brasco. Brasco is cautious about having his picture taken because there is still a contract on his life.

“The worst thing he can be is an informant. It’s all right to be a killer, it’s all right to be a gangster. It means a lot to him not to be labeled a rat.

“But they’re all rats, in a way,” Mr. Connolly said.

It is not only the ethics of Boston’s gangsters on trial.

Mr. Bulger, 83, is like most every gangster, from the most powerful mafiosi to the youngest street-gang wannabe, in not wanting to be known as an informant. It is the most basic rule of the underworld, one transposed directly from the schoolyard: No snitching.

“There were definitely rules,” said Joseph Pistone, the former FBI agent who went undercover for years to infiltrate New York’s Mafia under the assumed name “Donnie Brasco.” His real-life exploits were the basis for bestselling books and a blockbuster movie.

HE CANADIAN PRESS/AP - WNBC-TV This artist drawing shows undercover FBI agent Joseph Pistone, center, questioned by Assistant U.S. Attorney Barbara Jones at federal court in Manhattan, New York City on Tuesday, August 3, 1982, during the trial of five men accused of violating racketeering laws. At left is one of the defendants, Benjamin 'Lefty' Ruggiero.

He was personally taught the ways of a wiseguy by mobster Benjamin “Lefty Guns” Ruggiero, who was unaware Mr. Pistone was an agent infiltrating the family from 1976 to 1981.

AP / U.S. Marshals Service James "Whitey" Bulger, South Boston’s notorious crime boss, is now on trial for murder and a host of other crimes.

The Mafia’s rules became the template for almost all Western organized crime groups.

“Lefty, he used to say all the time, ‘I’m schooling you.’ He was telling me the rules, showing me the rules,” Mr. Pistone said in an interview this week. “And one of the rules is don’t be a rat; don’t even talk to police, don’t testify before a grand jury. It was one of the top things they told me.

“And if you broke the rule, it’d get you killed. That’s the way it was.”

There were, in fact, only four primary rules, the mortal sins that could bring the death penalty within the mob, he said.

“The rules came down to: Don’t talk to police; don’t steal from the family; don’t disrespect a wiseguy; don’t fool around with a wiseguy’s wife, girlfriend or daughter.”

Don’t talk to police; don’t steal from the family; don’t disrespect a wiseguy; don’t fool around with a wiseguy’s wife

Those rules, however, are all routinely broken.

“In today’s world — and I’m talking about the criminal world — there is no honour among thieves anymore. They are all in it for themselves. They are in it for themselves and they will get out of it to save themselves if they get caught; they’ll make a deal,” said Mr. Pistone.

“There are very few real gangsters left.”

FBI surveillance photo"Donnie Brasco," left, when he was undercover, lounging by a pool with Mafia capo Dominick "Sonny Black" Napolitano.

His old mob mentor, Lefty, went to prison rather than cooperate with the government. Dominick “Sonny Black” Napolitano, the Mafia captain who unwittingly vouched for Mr. Pistone, allowed himself to be killed by aggrieved mobsters as punishment rather than become a rat.

Peter J. Thompson/National PostMarv Elkind , a former driver for Jimmy Hoffa and various mobsters on November 4, 2011.

Marvin “The Weasel” Elkind knows what it is like to be an underworld fink. For decades he was a paid police informant on the streets of Toronto and elsewhere after years spent as mob muscle and driver.

He said the code of silence was always drummed into him.

“It is the number one rule of the street. It’s the first rule you learn. And it is strictly pretend,” said Mr. Elkind.

“There is completely no honour among thieves. The real truth is, you’ll be loyal only as long as nothing is bothering you. If you’re not under suspicion or not in danger from the cops you can be completely loyal, you can be completely non-fink.

“I’ve seen it with everybody — just about everybody — from bosses to muscle, big guys to little guys, if it meant getting out of a jam. This talk about keeping quiet becomes a load of crap when they get into a jam,” Mr. Elkind said.

Being a fink was shameful within his milieu, he said, but although it posed danger, the selfishness of gangsters reduced the threat. There is no longer a monolithic thirst for a rat’s blood.

Courtesy of The Weasel: A Double Life in the MobWhile wearing a secret police wire, Marvin "The Weasel" Elkind meets Herb Asselstine, white coat, George Buric, dark jacket, and their muscle, at Toronto’s Royal York Hotel in Elkind’s first case for police in 1983, a $1.7 million cheque scam.

“It’s really only dangerous if you run into someone you really hurt or somebody really close to him. Most other people don’t give a damn about the other guy or what you did to him. Everyone is in competition. They only care what you do to them. And it’s easy to convince someone you’d never go against them, because that’s what they want to believe.”

AP Photo/U.S. Attorney's OfficeKevin Weeks, a former top lieutenant to James "Whitey" Bulger, during an interview with the Associated Press in Boston in 2011.

Most criminals who become informants have an excuse; a reason why, in their case, it was acceptable.

“If I was ever confronted, I said ‘I was making sure I got them before they got us,’” Mr. Elkind said. “Or I’d say I was only getting guys who finked on other guys, as payback. You make an excuse — you need an excuse to tell yourself as well as to everyone else.”

At the Bulger trial, that phenomenon was on stark display: Kevin Weeks, the man who was testifying against Mr. Bulger at the same time he was decrying that Mr. Bulger was a rat, excused his own testimony by saying Mr. Bulger ratted first.

“You can’t rat on a rat,” he told court.

That sentiment is expected from people like Mr. Weeks, Mr. Bulger and Mr. Elkind, all of whom grew up inculcated in the deviant culture of organized crime.

“No rat sees himself as a real rat — they all see a reason behind it: it’s OK to turn in people who aren’t your friends, or you can’t rat on another rat. Everyone has a reason, an excuse,” said Mr. Connolly.

AP Photo/U.S. Attorney's OfficeThis undated surveillance photo released Monday, July 8, 2013, by the U.S. Attorney's office at federal court in Boston shows James "Whitey" Bulger, left, walking with his former right hand man, Kevin Weeks.

“You can see that theme running through this whole trial.”

In a way, gangsters can’t really be to blame; they are only reflecting societal change, said Mr. Pistone.

“Gangsters today aren’t the gangsters of 15 or 20 years ago. You know what happened? It’s like in the real world: ‘I want what I want and I want it now.’”

Pierre de Champlain, a former RCMP intelligence analyst and an author on organized crime, agrees.

“There are more rats than there are full-fledged members of the Mafia today,” said Mr. de Champlain. “To me, it makes it a farce.”

The mobster’s code of conduct has always been based on three core values: secrecy, discipline and respect, he said. Those values protected the organization and gave it power.

“Today, they have no respect for their rules. To become a ‘made’ member is just seen as an authorization to make money and once they are pinched by police, they will cooperate. It’s a me-myself-and-I mentality, so when they get caught, they talk.”

As for Mr. Bulger, on Friday he told the judge he would not testify on his own behalf. On Monday, lawyers will make closing arguments before the jury begins deliberations.

Their verdict will decide Mr. Bulger’s future and go a long way towards settling his gangland legacy.

MONTREAL — Joseph Pistone, the former FBI agent who used the alias Donnie Brasco to infiltrate the New York Mafia in the 1970s, is best known today because of the Hollywood depiction of his exploits.

But as he testified about the inner workings of the mob Monday before Quebec’s public inquiry into corruption, he urged people not to believe popular culture’s presentation of the Mafia as an honourable society.

“You know, most of the public, they have this romantic view of the Mafia because they see the movies, they see guys sitting around with $5,000 suits, talking eloquently, and that’s not the way it is, believe me,” Mr. Pistone said. “They don’t quote Shakespeare.”

In fact, he said, Mafia members are ruthless in their quest for power and money. “When you’re a wise guy, you can lie, you steal, you can cheat, you can kill, and it’s all legitimate,” he said.

Mr. Pistone, whose six-year undercover stint led to more than 200 convictions and proved hugely embarrassing to New York’s Bonanno criminal family, had a $500,000 bounty placed on his head after it was revealed in 1981 that he had been working for the police.

And the commission headed by Superior Court Justice France Charbonneau was taking no chances Monday, placing a large screen behind Mr. Pistone, 73, to shield him from public view.

All that was visible was his right hand as he occasionally gestured to emphasize a point.

Since news broke that he would be testifying, inquiry watchers have been anticipating Mr. Pistone’s appearance as eagerly as festivalgoers would greet a red-carpet walk by Johnny Depp, who portrayed him in the 1997 movie Donnie Brasco.

His tales of his undercover work were captivating. He described the “legend” he created for himself as a jewel thief, and how he patiently won the trust of Benjamin “Lefty” Ruggiero, a Bonanno family mobster. He detailed the hierarchy within a crime family, where a mere associate like he was could never lay a hand on a full member, or made man.

That meant that during his ascension he absorbed slaps from made men without retaliating but punched and knocked out an associate following a stormy meeting. “It’s not a pretty sight, but if you want to stay alive, you have to answer with physical violence,” he said.

For most of his day on the stand, it was not clear how his 30-year-old stories of New York gangs would help the commission better understand the current situation in Quebec.

Eventually he got around to describing what he had learned of Mafia control of the construction industry in New York. Mob control over unions and businesses providing raw materials for construction sites allowed them to skim up to 10% of the cost of construction projects, he said: “Every piece of raw material that’s going into that building, they’re controlling.” He said the Mafia continues to play a large role in the construction industry.

“Definitely,” he said. “I have a very good friend who has a construction company, and he deals with them every day, through the unions.”

His knowledge of the Canadian mob was limited. He recalled that during his time under cover, the Bonanno family worked closely with the Cotroni family in Montreal. He alluded to the Canadian gunman — Vito Rizzuto — brought in for a 1981 hit on three New York capos, but he did not mention Rizzuto by name. Rizzuto, who rose to become head of a Montreal crime family, is set to be released from a U.S. prison next month after serving five years for his role in the 1981 killings.

Mr. Pistone’s most valuable message may have come toward the end of his testimony.

“I think that you have to get across to the public that this is not an honourable society, there is no honour amongst thieves,” he said. “And even though you may not think it, any product that the Mafia has their hands in, the public ultimately pays for it.”

He said the Mafia depends on its ability to corrupt public officials and businesses, and he urged legitimate businessmen approached by the Mafia to go to the police. “Because once you give in, and once you pay one extortion, you never stop. It’s never just one time they come to you.”

As his testimony neared the end, Sonia Lebel, a lawyer for the commission, asked Mr. Pistone whether he considered the inquiry a useful exercise. “Very useful,” he replied, because it helps “educate the public that this is not the movies. …This is real life. They are a dangerous plague on our society.”

MONTREAL — The man who infiltrated the New York Mafia and inspired the movie ”Donnie Brasco” is describing how he saw the underworld take over the construction businesses using methods that would be familiar to Quebecers today.

Joseph Pistone, a legendary FBI agent who spent six years undercover as a Mafia associate starting in the late 1970s, told the Charbonneau Commission about the inner workings of the Mob in the United States during his testimony on Monday.

He described its control over labour unions and businesses that owned raw construction materials — so it consistently managed to claim a piece of the profit, even for public contracts where a Mob-linked company wasn’t ostensibly involved.

In one example he cited, Mafia-run construction companies would claim to hire more expensive unionized labour while actually paying cheaper non-union rates.

He cited different reasons for why the Mafia would have been allowed to become so powerful. First of all, he said businesses are making a grievous error when they allow themselves to get extorted by the Mob — because it will keep coming back for more.

He also lamented that the general public has romantic notions about the Cosa Nostra, thanks to Hollywood-fuelled images of men with colourful vocabularies wearing $5,000 suits.

“Believe me — they don’t quote Shakespeare,” Pistone said. “This is not the movies… They are a dangerous plague on our society.”

“The public has an image of an honourable society. The Mafia is not honourable,” he said. “Legitimate businessmen, when they are approached tby the Mafia, should report it to law enforcement.

“Once you give in… they never stop… It’s not just one time.”

My argument that was we’re going to embarrass them by having an undercover with them for all these years, can you imagine if it comes out they inducted an FBI agent?

He said Mob scams ultimately get passed on to taxpayers and consumers, in the form of higher prices. He said governments and police forces have a responsibility to never lose sight of the threat it poses, and to keep fighting.

Quebec’s commission is looking into criminal corruption in the construction industry and its ties to organized crime and political parties.

The corruption scandals in the province blew wide open three years ago, with media reports of a construction cartel called the “Fabulous 14” that allegedly colluded on bids for public-works projects. Pistone described a similar system in the U.S.

In his morning testimony Monday, he told colourful tales about how he infiltrated the Mob while pretending to be a jewel thief.

He also discussed the ways of the underworld, including its moral codes and its list of offences that would get people killed.

His early testimony had been a mish-mash — or, as he calls it, a “mix-mash” — of anecdotes from the Mafia life he observed three decades ago, laced with street-wise lingo.

In one example he described taking a slap from a so-called “made” man and thinking that, under ordinary circumstances, he would have punched the guy; he had to refrain, because full Mafia members were untouchable.

No one had ever gotten this close to a Mafia family

What Pistone has not done, so far, is delve into the workings of the Canadian Mafia.

He had just begun discussing ties between the New York families and their Canadian counterparts when the testimony broke for lunch. Pistone referred to a killing of Mafia capos committed by a hit squad that included Montreal’s Vito Rizzuto, although he did not mention Rizzuto by name.

When he came back in the afternoon, he discussed the construction industry.

Pistone, now 73, is testifying under heavy security at the inquiry behind a screen.

Commission chair France Charbonneau has imposed a ban on the broadcasting or publication of any image of Pistone from Monday’s hearing. The ban does not extend to photos or footage taken in the past.

His testimony has focused so far on the six years that he spent undercover running with the Bonanno crime family in New York City, an unprecedented police operation that saw law enforcement get as close as it ever has to the Mafia.

Much of his testimony has been the subject of books Pistone himself has already written, as well as the 1997 Hollywood blockbuster “Donnie Brasco.”

He was pulled from the operation just as he was about to become a made man, Pistone said, with his bosses making the call to pull him out. He said he was disappointed to see the operation suspended.

“No one had ever gotten this close to a Mafia family,” Pistone said.

“My argument that was we’re going to embarrass them by having an undercover with them for all these years, can you imagine if it comes out they inducted an FBI agent?”

Pistone’s undercover work led to some 20 trials and 200 convictions across the U.S. But the Bonanno clan continues to exist to this day, Pistone says, and still has strong ties to groups in Montreal as it did when he was embedded.

Pistone’s testimony at the Charbonneau commission is intended to help the inquiry better understand the murky world of the Mafia as a whole.

Other witnesses testified last week about how Mafia families function.

Honour and loyalty are key, Pistone said. Orders to underlings are to be carried out without question — even when the order is to kill someone. There is no debating or discussing such things, he said.

Pistone, who assumed the Brasco identity during his undercover days in the mid-1970s and early 1980s, is still hiding from the Mafia as a result of his old career.

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/they-dont-quote-shakespeare-donnie-brasco-tells-of-mafia-hit-at-quebec-corruption-inquiry/feed8std"Donnie Brasco," left, when he was undercover, lounging by a pool with Mafia capo Dominick "Sonny Black" Napolitano.